Barron: U.S. gymnastics goes prime time

Published 12:01 am, Friday, August 19, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - With all the uproar in radio, TV and college sports, it's a nice break to spend a week dialed in on Olympic sports, specifically the USA Gymnastics national championships taking place next door in St. Paul.

Universal Sports will have the men's finals, featuring Houston gymnast Jonathan Horton's attempt to come from behind for his third straight all-around national title, at 7 p.m. today. NBC will have the women's final at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Elsewhere, as things are happening of note hither and yon, we give you a Minnesota-based edition of Four DVRs, No Waiting.

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Sports radio shuffle

CBS Radio announced Thursday it's flipping WYSP-FM in Philadelphia to simulcast its powerhouse sports station WIP-AM. That will give CBS Radio FM sports stations in six markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, and three simulcasts along with six AM standalones, including KILT (610 AM).

The obvious local question is whether CBS would flip one of its four Houston FMs - country KILT (100.3 FM), Spanish-language KLOL (101.1 FM), contemporary hits KKHH (95.7 FM) or hot AC KHMX (96.5 FM) - to sports. I'm guessing not, since all four are relatively profitable.

For the year, CBS Houston's ad revenues are up 8.3 percent, including an 8.9 percent bump for KILT-AM. Clear Channel is up 14 percent over 2010, including a 2.5 percent increase for KBME (790 AM). Cumulus Media is down 4.3 percent, but KFNC (97.5 FM) is up 21.2 percent.

Zierlein's move

Still, unpredictable things can happen, the most recent example being Lance Zierlein's move from KGOW (1560 AM) to KBME (790 AM). Oddly enough, you can credit the NFL lockout in part for what unfolded.

"I had contemplated for a while getting out of 1560 and trying to do national things, but the NFL lockout may have precluded me from taking advantage of opportunities," Zierlein said. "That was one of the things I was searching for. I wasn't looking to move to another spot (in Houston) because I didn't think anything else would be open."

It would have been intriguing to pair Zierlein with Charlie Pallilo in afternoon drive, but Clear Channel opted to put him with former KILT colleagues Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler in morning drive.

And, yes, Zierlien acknowledges the irony that, after working for a station that coined an unflattering slogan for corporate radio stations, he's going to be working for one again.

"An independent setting is great if it's something that can work," he said. "Unfortunately, I didn't think it was working for me."

Texans' preseason bump

Joel Meyers and Spencer Tillman will call the Texans-Saints preseason game at 7 p.m. Saturday on KTRK (Channel 13) and on NFL Network. Texans preseason games will air on television in 14 markets, and the team this season has radio affiliates in 25 markets.

The Texans' Monday night opener on ESPN and KHOU (Channel 11) combined for a 17.9 Nielsen rating, up 54 percent from 11.6 for the 2010 opener against the Cardinals. Texans officials said it was the largest year-to-year percentage increase in the league.

Wragge out at Early Show

CBS appears to be hedging its bets on Early Show host Chris Wragge, the former KPRC (Channel 2) anchor. Wragge will return to WCBS as anchor of its 6 p.m. EST newscast while continuing his duties on The Early Show, which hasn't moved the ratings needle in significant fashion since Wragge took over from Harry Smith as lead host earlier this year.

Four Houston players - Cameron Ridley of Fort Bend Bush, guards Aaron and Andrew Harrison of FB Travis and guard Rasheed Sulaimon of Strake Jesuit, have been selected for an Aug. 26-27 Elite 24 event that will air on ESPNU. ...

ESPN's high school schedule includes Allen-Plano East at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 on ESPN2 and Aledo-Birdville at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 on ESPNU plus Scottsdale (Ariz.) Chaparral, featuring Texas commitment Connor Brewer, on Sept. 30 on ESPN2. I wonder if the NCAA will let ESPN run Longhorn Network promos during the games? Haw.

Speaking of which, did you see that ESPN has moved the game time for the Rice-Texas opener from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 3? I guess they need the extra hour to cut carriage deals.

Fox Sports Group chairman David Hill cited UFC's hold on the critical men 18-34 demographic Thursday in describing the importance of the network's new seven-year deal with the mixed martial arts promoter

The Fox-UFC partnership, reportedly valued at as much as $90 million per year, includes four events per year on Fox, beginning Nov. 12 in Anaheim, Calif., plus other events on Fuel and other Fox networks and the Ultimate Fighter series moving to FX.

"It's that (men 18-34) demo that grows the sport," Hill said. "They will grow with it, they will take their kids to watch and sit with them on the couch (for TV events).

"If you look at what we will do jointly between ourselves and UFC, that is where the exciting future is. If you look at the demos, that is the key, key thing."

Hill had been critical several years ago of UFC and MMA but, he said, "I changed my mind."

As for Fox, UFC president Dana White said, "This is the deal I wanted. It took a long time for it to happen. ... I don't know if I ever thought it would happen, but it did. That's all that matters."

However, UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta said there were other suitors. "You had basically every major broadcaster fighting for these rights," he said. "It wasn't a one-horse race. Everybody wanted to be involved with UFC."

UFC will retain control over the production of its events while Fox will provide, in theory, additional eyeballs in the 18-34 demo. Referring to Spike's comments that it had 50 ratings points among men 18-34 for UFC events, FX executive John Landgraf said among all the Fox networks, "we probably have that many points (hidden) in our couch cushions."